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KADUNA, Nigeria — Nigerians voted Saturday in the most bitterly contested election in the history of the country’s young democracy — a poll that will determine the next chapter in a long-standing fight against Islamist insurgents and the management of Africa’s largest economy.

WASHINGTON _ Commercial airlines do not screen pilots for mental health issues as rigorously as government agencies, law enforcement and specialized branches of the military, and some aviation experts say that may need to change in the wake of the apparently deliberate crash of a German airliner with 150 people on board.

SANAA, Yemen — Arab leaders vowed Saturday to back the embattled Yemeni president as a Saudi Arabia-led coalition intensified airstrikes on Shiite rebel targets across Yemen, escalating a conflict that many residents fear could lead to a land invasion.

ROME — Italy’s supreme court on Friday invalidated the convictions of U.S. citizen Amanda Knox and her Italian ex-boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, for the 2007 murder of British student Meredith Kercher, in a surprise ending to a seven-year legal saga.

NASA’s Friday launch went off without a hitch. At 3:42 p.m. Eastern time, U.S. astronaut Scott Kelly left the ground at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and headed to the International Space Station in a Soyuz rocket.

SANAA, Yemen — Saudi jets pounded neighboring Yemen on Thursday and Egyptian warships steamed toward its coast in the start of an Arab-led offensive against Shiite rebels that has become a showdown between the major powers in the Middle East.

TOULOUSE, France — Investigators probing the cause of the Airbus crash in the French Alps on Tuesday will rely on the jet’s so-called black boxes to explain why it was lost on a routine daylight flight with no distress signals from the crew.

ALAM, Iraq — Sabha al-Jabbouri gingerly opened the door to her family home to see a kitchen strewn with dirty pots and pans and rubbish. On the table was a half-eaten meal, indicating that the unwelcome guests who had lived here for eight months had left in a hurry.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pakistani officials said Thursday that they had issued a temporary reprieve to a man who was due to be executed for a crime allegedly committed when he was 14, in a case that has drawn worldwide attention.

DANDONG, China — The textile factories producing “made in China” goods from compounds just across the Yalu River from North Korea offer a glimpse into a hidden world that is helping North Korea’s economy to thrive.

UNITED NATIONS — Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif says he’s counting on the United Nations Security Council to prevent U.S. lawmakers from overturning any deal to limit Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for lifting economic sanctions.

WELLINGTON, New Zealand — China stepped up scrutiny on New Zealand baby formula imports as orders fell, sending the kiwi dollar to fresh five-week lows a day after the South Pacific nation revealed a plot to poison baby food.

Greek Justice Minister Nikos Paraskevopoulos said this week he was ready to allow the Greek government to seize German state-owned property to compensate the families of 218 Greeks killed during World War II. “I’m ready to sign,” Paraskevopoulos said during an interview on Mega TV, according to the news agency Reuters, referring to a 2000 ruling that would allow him the confiscation.

BEIJING — China’s Lunar New Year celebrations typically feature visits to relatives. For Du Jiahao, Day Two of the biggest holiday on the calendar found him doing something altogether different: The chief of central Hunan province went on a two-hour bicycle ride along the Xiang River, checking its water quality.

BEIRUT — The Islamic State appears to be starting to fray from within, as dissent, defections and setbacks on the battlefield sap the group’s strength and erode its aura of invincibility among those living under its despotic rule.